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Tuesday, 17 September 2013

Star Trek: The Next Generation: Strike Zone Review

Ever since I decided I would give reading Star Trek novels a try, I wanted to read
some TNG books but I wasn’t sure if
it was the best place to start. You see, I’m familiar with two Star Trek series. The Original Series and The
Next Generation. I prefer TNG by
quite a large margin. I decided to begin with TOS and it was good, I enjoyed both books I’ve read so far. I
wanted to read more TOS but I wanted
to try a TNG book more. The problem,
as always, is where to begin? In his last Blogathon, Chad Nevett aided by
Graeme McMillan did a couple of posts on the Star Trek novels of Peter David (here and here). I didn’t know
Peter David wrote Star Trek novels! I’m
a fan of some of his comics work. I’m not the biggest fan but his X-Factor stuff is great superhero
comics. David’s also a funny author. Star Trek is no stranger to humour but I
find it’s often a little stiff or, regrettably, falls flat. Still, my curiosity
was picked.

After doing some research a few months ago, I found out
that the bulk of David’s Star Trek
writing took place in a series he co-created with John J. Ordover called StarTrek: New Frontier. It’s a spin-off
of TNG. I plan on giving the series a
try in the next few months but before doing that I wanted to give David’s TNG
novels a go first. I wanted to do this for a few reasons. Because it’s a
spin-off series, New Frontier might
make references to things that happened in David’s TNG novels. Another reason is that David’s first Star Trek books were his early TNG stuff. Strike Zone, as far as I can tell, is his very first. Considering
that, it’s pretty good. When comparing it to the TV series, it’s just plain
good.

Peter David uses a similar tone to his prose writing as
he does his comics writing. There is plenty of humour that, while being present
throughout the book, doesn’t distract. Occasionally David goes too far with the
jokes he has Data make but I feel it’s the sort of thing the writers of TNG would have included in their
episodes had they all been episodes of two hours in length. One of the
compliments I can make of Strike Zone
is that it feels like a long episode of Star
Trek: TNG. Long, but not bloated. The novel is pretty breezy which is
somewhat surprising considering the crew of the Enterprise have to deal with some
serious issues, diplomatic and personal.

One of the reasons the book doesn’t rise beyond good or
the relative quality of a mid-range TNG
episode is that a large focus of the book is on Klingons and their antagonistic
relationship with the Kreel who are essentially scavengers. Captain Picard is ordered to escort a party of Klingons and another of Kreel to a deserted planet that was used as a weapons cache. On the way, he is to be aided by a Klingon diplomat and they're mission is to establish lines peaceful communication between both races. I’m not a huge fan
of Klingons. I like them, but I won’t like an episode simply because they’re in
it. I really like Worf though and he has some nice moments in the book. We
learn about his childhood and it’s pretty heartbreaking. I’ve got a feeling
David quite likes Worf because he plays a big role in Strike Zone and he also has nice little moments in A Rock and a Hard Place which I’m
currently reading. To top that, David wrote three young adult novels focusing
on Worf’s time at Starfleet Academy. As for the rest of the book that doesn’t
focus on the relationship between the Klingon and Kreel focus instead on Wesley
Crusher, which is a bit unfortunate. It’s not that I don’t like Wesley as a character;
it’s that he’s often poorly used or his treatment by the crew of the Enterprise is completely unrealistic. Wesley
suffers a pretty serious mental breakdown in this book but it was an interesting
take on the character. David gave him some depth by giving us a look inside his
head and his inner thoughts are filled with self-doubt. It’s not an original
idea, an early TNG episode, “Coming
of Age”, focuses just on that very subject.

It turns out that I like the TNG novels more than the TOS
books by approximately the same margin that I prefer the second Star Trek TV series over the first. The characters
are more interesting and the stories are also more interesting. I also think
they’re better defined and because of that I hear them more clearly in my head
when I read the book. In addition to that, David has a good grasp of their
individual voices but he does do write a few things that don’t really ring
true. The somewhat verbally abusive treatment of Data is one example. Despite
all my criticism, I rather enjoyed Strike
Zone. I’m impressed with David’s first foray in the Star Trek and I’m pretty hopeful that I will discover his stories,
grasp of character and authorial voice improved with his later novels. If he
kept me interested with a book filled with Klingons and Wesley, I’m sure he can
get me to read just about any Star Trek
book that has his name on the cover.

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Welcome to my blog. I like to write about comics, books, movies and more. Feel free to comment and share you thoughts. If you'd like me to review a comic or if you're interested in an interview, send me an e-mail at mario.jf.lebel@gmail.com.